Qualcomm Partners w/ @mlabeastafrica For Free App Testing

If you are a mobile application developer, you can now access devices to test your applications at the m:lab for free. This has been officially announced in a yearlong partnership agreement that comes into effect this July between Qualcomm and m:lab East Africa that will seek to allow free access to mobile devices for testing to mobile application developers at the m:Lab.

As of June 30th this year, the m:Lab facility hosted over 130 mobile devices on these platforms on different platforms like Samsung’s Bada, Google’s Android, Apples’ iOS, Blackberry BB10 and previous version, Nokia’s Symbian, and Windows Phone 8, Microsoft flagship mobile operating system.

Various players in the industry have contributed devices to this facility, since its inception in 2011 including, Samsung, Nokia and BlackBerry. Other contributors to this facility include the Sales Force Foundation, HTC, Intel and Microsoft.

The partnership between Qualcomm and the m:lab seeks to foster growth of the regional mobile Ecosystem by allowing developers access to these devices on a when-they-need-them basis.

John Kieti, the m:lab lead says that the partnership with Qualcomm not only presents the m:lab with an opportunity to make access to testing devices affordable but also works to assist developers to embrace a culture of pursuing quality assurance for the applications they develop. This will in turn help developers compete with a global audience.

Under this new partnership, Qualcomm and the m:lab will work together to organize meet-ups and workshops with mobile applications developers to understand developer challenges and how these can be solved for a more progressive and vibrant mobile ecosystem in East Africa.

Both Qualcomm and m:lab will organize forums to disseminate information on key concepts and technologies that Qualcomm has developed to empower developers in taking advantage of wireless technologies such as 3G and 4G networks under this new partnership.